I suffer from acid reflux, ulcers and chronic nausea and have been successfully treating it with medical cannabis.

The acid reflux degrades the lining of the esophagus and stomach, which induces chronic pain and nausea. I was also diagnosed with chronic nausea/cyclic vomiting syndrome.

For acid reflux my doctor prescribes me to take Omeprazole (Prilosec) which can be bought OTC, as well as other OTC medications (tums, Maalox, Rolaids, Mylanta, etc ) and these help, but they do nothing for nausea or poor appetite.

For nausea I'm am prescribed to zofran, which works fairly well at treating nausea, but which does little to stimulate appetite, so even with the zofran cannabis is essential.

Medical cannabis is a lifesaver.

Since childhood the prescription medications were fairly ineffective, it was not until I was around 14 that I discovered cannabis.

Due to the pain from the acid reflux and ulcers and from the chronic nausea, and because I adhere to a strict vegetarian diet, I was having difficulty maintaining a healthy weight, and my poor nutrition and almost complete lack of diet in general was causing health issues.

Over the years I have been able to fully manage these symptoms. The cannabis not only relieves nausea, but it stimulates appetite, due to the medical cannabis I rarely need my zofran, and can take them as a PRN, though even with zofran the cannabis is needed, because zofran does not stimulate appetite.

Any way, because of medical cannabis I have been able to maintain a healthy diet. Because I am a vegetarian I must supplement the protein I am missing through protein powders, through these powders I am getting all my calories, carbs, protein, essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, I have found that the cannabis makes consumption of these protein powders a breeze, as well as consuming any other food.

I am now at the perfect weight for my BMI, plus, due to the protein, and because rather than drive anywhere I walk or bike, I have built up a good deal of muscle mass.

At one point, my family wanted to see if I could go without the cannabis because I had been doing so well, and it was an almost complete regression, within a week the nausea and pain had returned frequently, and I began to loose weight. I have an incredibly fast metabolism, and even though I am at my BMI there isn't any fat on my body, so I can begin to loose weight fairly quickly.

My family are the most "anti-drug" people that you will ever meet, yet even my own mother can testify to the medicinal miracle of cannabis. My mother is a nurse, and often would side with prescription medications, yet after seeing all that cannabis has done to keep me healthy even she would testify that the cannabis is more effective than the prescribed medications.

There is good reason why cancer patients who can not eat due to pain and nausea are prescribed cannabis, and while my medical issues are no where near as severe as those experienced by cancer patients, I can understand feeling so nauseous and sick that it's difficult to even move, then being able to consume some cannabis extract, and within 15 minutes of this inhaling the cannabis I will be eating and will be free of 95% of my symptoms.

Once, when I was younger, I watched a friend smoke cannabis and proceed to eat an entire uncooked package of spaghetti noodles...anybody who claims that cannabis is not effective at helping sick people eat is delusional, and when it comes to treating nausea I think cannabis is more effective than zofran ( zofran is also prescribed to cancer patients to relieve nausea and stimulate appetite, I am also prescribed to zofran )

My family and my doctor are fully supportive of my cannabis use as well, my doctor (my real doctor not the doctor who signs my medical cannabis forms) said that if I found a natural and safe medication that is more effective than the prescribed pills than he is fully in support of it, he says obviously it's working as I am in great shape with minimal symptoms, he also knows what happens when I stop using the cannabis because I will constantly be filling nausea prescriptions and will lose weight.

Ok, I think I rambled on long enough, though one must be mindful and consider their own unique situation, just because it worked in my case does not mean that others will have the same results. Though I'm confident that if nausea, pain, and appetite are symptoms from your medical conditions, that cannabis has the potential to treat these issues more effectively than the medications.

It's somewhat sad that if you are not in a wheel-chair or a cancer patient that others will not take your medical use of cannabis seriously.

I have even had others who were not in the medical field suggest "Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome" claiming cannabis is the cause of the nausea, in my case this is absurd, specially since the symptoms began at childhood (before cannabis use), and the symptoms only occur when cannabis use has been stoped for about 2 or 3 days.

When my nausea occurs (this nausea and pain are from ulcers formed as a result of GERD) the cannabis works near instantly, I will take a large inhalation, wait 5 minutes or so, and bam! Symptoms relived.

As far as appetite stimulation, the effects are self-evident to anybody who has smoked cannabis.

In the PDF above an individual describes how cannabis and psilocybin helped treat his bipolar disorder. I have seen this work in reality in many many cases, I have seen in individual having a bipolar episode become stabilized almost immediately after ingesting cannabis. Cannabis can be an amazing mood-stabilizer for bipolar. Research has long claimed the opposite, and in certain cases the research may be correct, however, from my personal experience, and through more in depth recent research, this old assumption that cannabis will exacerbate bipolar symptoms seems to be inaccurate, even if just for a handful of cases.

I believe cannabis is a natural medicine and entheogen which has the potential to enrich one's life in many ways. I feel that cultural and legal standings regarding the plant are the sources of any negative consequence of its use, people will say "cannabis will ruin your life", and if cultural standings cause your family to have issues, and if legal issues could put you into prison, than yes, cannabis can ruin your life, but keep in mind these things are not symptoms of the cannabis, but rather how the cannabis is treated.

I'm allowing this thread due to the discussion of medical uses. Please be mindful of the no cannabis rule and keep the discussion to medical uses only. As always, all persons posting about personal usage in this thread reside in a location where such usage is legal, and are prescribed cannabis for medical usage.

I apologize, in my state cannabis is legal for medical and recreational use, and as a result I have become very relaxed openly discussing the topic, and often forget that in certain situations that this may be inappropriate.